My Language Your Language

During an abstract reading from a learned Professor Dr. A.K Das has given me the idea to pen down my view.

Define language?

A systematic means of communicating, but now a day it has become a means of conflict. And when there is conflict there is violence. The language is as sensitive as religion or caste sounds strange. Language and religion are both sporadic and the net result can detriment our unity. If religion can create Pakistan, then language conflict can create Bangladesh.

When we talk loudly of our nationalism, each person's idea of nationalism is his own brand of nationalism. It may be Assamese nationalism, it may be Bengali, and it may be Gujrati, Uttar Pradesh, Punjabi or Madrasi. Each one has his own particular brand in mind. He may use the word nationalism of India but in his mind, he is thinking of that nationalism in terms of his own brand of it. When two brands of nationalism come into conflict, there is trouble. In India the language conflict is more than that, it is conflict between political parties; social groups; elite groups vs. rest of the population. The heartbreaking thing that I observed in my country is that we respect foreigner’s and their language but we forget to respect the languages of our owns.

The history of language conflict in modern times can be traced back to 1938, when the Madras Government headed by C. Rajgopalachari made Hindi a compulsory language to be learned by the students of the state. Periyar E. V. Ramaswamy, the founder of Dravidian Movement, opposed this tooth and nail and launched an anti-Hindi agitation. The recommendations of the Official Language Commission led to some serious developments in Assam.

Many scholars believe the stubborn nature of Indian towards his or her own language may balkanize India. I strongly believe we should have a pluralistic approach to have a solution to this. The existence of a language or its esteem cannot be detriment by some people. I have lived in a state where the language was an alien to me, for me learning this new language has not only made me more closely to the soil but towards the people too. Embracing a language has never made me inferior nor was it a threat towards my own mother tongue rather it made me strong and gave me new dimensions.

We all should come out of the barrier that we have created for ourselves and stop alienating the beautiful language that we are gifted by virtue of being born in India and try to be called the true son of the soils.